Journalism Program

Why did we choose “Story-Based Inquiry” for the framework for our Investigative Journalism Community and courses www.iamthestory.org for global youth?

Since the beginning of human communication, storytelling was the way we shared our human experience. We learned life skills, grew communities and stayed safe in hostile environments. To this day storytelling is the nerve center of not only digital news, it is still in the streets of rap music and the rumors of the market place.

Our stories define who we are, What we do, When it happened, Where it happened and Why it happened (the five Ws). Just look at your phone and how Facebook works, you will see it.

Digital storytelling is how we have become a global community. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Linkedin are all nothing but five Ws storytelling applications. For the listener the story has always been, "Who am I and how do I fit in?" It is addicting because it is who we are and the space that gives life meaning. Yet, at times, it can be, meaningless, deceptive, even tragically evil. Look at www.martinlutherking.org by the white supremacist's Stormfront.

Moral Storytelling in form of Sufi Tails, Confucius saying and the parables of Jesus all drive us to dig into character development and the truth of what is going down around us. When listening to any story we are asking ourselves two things: “Is this true?” and “Is this right or wrong?” Perhaps the entire culture’s character is formed by how they tell an interpret stories. Corruption has always known this and for this reason have oppressed, twisted and now misinformed people on the true meaning behind the story.

From stories of a war plan, social injustice to the boy dating a daughter. Life is billions of stories woven to one big one that we all live in. We train youth to both uncover the truth in the story and the ethics of telling an honest one. Every day deceptive stories cause the disaster of collapsed governments to the death of a lied to refugees. All must know how to find the truth in fiction. The skillful inquiry of a story is a mission critical life skill and human right. From a local injustice to the space shuttle blowing up, a sharp investigative reporter (or analyst) knows the truth is the story between the facts.

For this generation the global collaborative changes all of that. Never before in history did every civilian has the technical means to hold up a cell phone and stream the glaring truth. With this comes great power that has not gone unnoticed. Today tens of thousands of fake web sites are created to dis-inform the public about every thing from elections to product quality, while at the same time live streaming from citizens convicts forces the corrupt to deal with reality. The double edge sword of the Internet is that it makes it easier for the powerful to deceive while at the same time harder to hide from the truth.

The war is on between true and lies on a global scale. Only trained mind in how to find and expose truth through inquiry will win this war for human souls and the hearts of youth.

The five Ws of Who, What, Where, When and Why armed the youthful mind with a razor sword to not only cut through deception but also find solutions. The inquiry is not a destructive tool that some fear. The investigative inquiry is the foundation of all business innovation, Sciences, and social development.

The Digital Journalism Community (www.iamthestory.org) was designed to train global youth to honestly dig deep into life’s problems and uncover the solutions. Revealing the truth can re-write life’s stories, the morality of our actions, find solutions and make the world better place. Every youth and adult should be armed with these skills.

Starting with our first digital storytelling courses and portals with African youth in 2011 “I am Africa. This is my story…” Chrysalis Campaign, Inc. has been driven to transform youth with tools to find the truth in order to offer solutions that can make a new world better.

We all know a rebellious or hurt youth. Take them to www.iamthestory.org to join like minded youth coming together and learning the skills to make our small blue ball floating in space a better place to live. The story of the world is our story, and we have the power to make it much better than it is.